EXIM Bank Quarter in Review - Fall 2016

During my time as the longest-serving Chairman of EXIM Bank, I have visited hundreds of businesses across our country, meeting with American workers and business leaders who power our economy. The EXIM team is well-prepared for the presidential transition that puts these customers and American workers first. As I reflect on the end of the Obama Administration, I rest assured knowing that for more than 80 years, the Export-Import Bank has stood behind America’s exporters, leveling the playing field and bringing distant opportunities within reach.

This fiscal year, however, ended with a whimper-not a bang-for exporters. With only nine months of operation at less than full power, in FY 2016, EXIM authorized $5 billion in financing, supporting 52,000 well-paying American jobs. In the process, the EXIM generated $284 million for taxpayers. By comparison, in 2014-EXIM’s last fully functional year-the Bank authorized more than $20 billion in financing, supported nearly 165,000 American jobs, and generated $675 million for taxpayers. During the Obama Administration up to this point, EXIM has supported nearly $240 billion in U.S. exports, supported 1.5 million American jobs, and generated more than $3.4 billion for taxpayers.

Businesses large and small need a fully functioning EXIM Bank in order to take advantage of global opportunities, increase export sales, and create jobs here at home. Financing for small businesses this fiscal year was down by nearly half from 2014. In order to do all that Congress intended EXIM to do, the Bank needs a quorum on its Board of Directors.

Still, the EXIM team continues to serve our customers and our country. We have completed 75% of the requirements of the 2015 Reauthorization, and the others are on schedule. We have appointed Kenneth Tinsley as Chief Risk Officer, and Lisa Terry as Chief Ethics Officer. These and other provisions require a quorum on our Board of Directors in order to be fully complete.

In September, I visited Argentina, where EXIM reopened for short- and medium-term business in both the public and private sectors for the first time in more than 15 years. The Bank can offer terms as long as seven years-and even longer depending on the risk structure. During the past year, I have also visited China, India, Sri Lanka, Burma, and Bangladesh. My visit to Burma followed our reopening in Burma after nearly three decades of closure, and in September, President Obama lifted economic sanctions on the country clearing the way for increased competition for opportunities by American businesses. While America’s trade relationship with China is complex, the Chinese economy of 1.3 billion people is growing between six and seven percent every year, and demand continues for our aircraft, agricultural equipment and products, and professional services. In India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, governments and private sector companies are investing in power, information technology, sustainability, rail, and air transportation. Competition for these opportunities, however, is fierce. Our businesses and their workers will need access to the financing we offer in order to be competitive.

Since 2009, our country has made historic economic progress. We have largely recovered from the worst economic crisis since the great depression; gone from being a follower in global export sales to being the world’s second-largest single exporting nation; improved our trade balance with China, Canada, and the European Union; and cut unemployment in half and continued the longest streak of private-sector job growth in our nation’s history. We have done all this despite global economic headwinds and technological developments that have changed the ways we live and work before our very eyes.

Americans from every party and political affiliation want to fight for and win for the sales that grow our economy, benefit our workers, create jobs, and transform the world. As the growing global middle class travels around the world, we want them passing by or flying over green power plans that were Made-in-America, sitting on planes and trains from New York, Wisconsin, and Washington. One sure way to ensure that future is to engage and lead in the global economy. Optimist that I am, I believe we can do it, as we have since 1934.